1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a component parts box for a vehicle and particularly to a component parts box for a vehicle suitable for accommodating a large number of vehicular component parts in a narrow space of a vehicle efficiently.
2. Description of Background Art
In vehicles such as automobiles and motorcycles, with an increase in the number of electrically controlled functions, a large number of relays have come to be used as component parts. If the relays are arranged planarly, the installation area becomes large, so it is difficult to install the relays in a narrow place such as inside or outside of a vehicle. Various layouts have been proposed so that a larger number of parts such as relays can be accommodated within an extremely limited space, e.g. the interior of a vehicle. For example, in an electric connector box described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2740773, a large number of parts and circuits, including relays, are divided into a plurality of connecting blocks and the divided connecting blocks are arranged along the inner wall surface of an instrument panel, whereby a large number of relays can be accommodated in a suitable space.
Since the above conventional electric connector box is disposed planarly along the wall surface of the instrument panel, it is necessary to use the wall surface of the instrument panel over a wide area and it has so far not always been possible to ensure such a wide wall surface in an appropriate position. Moreover, in the case of positioning a relay box along a rear fender of a motorcycle, the following problem has been encountered.
FIG. 9 shows an example of the arrangement of a large number of relays along a rear fender of a motorcycle wherein a control unit is installed centrally of a vehicle body. In FIG. 9, a relay box 70 includes a plurality of relays that are divided into plural (two) sections, which are arranged along an outer periphery of a rear fender 71. Conductors 72 are drawn out from relays 73 contained in the relay box 70. The conductors 72 then extend downwardly along the rear fender 71 and are connected to a control unit 74. As can be seen from FIG. 9, in the case of arranging the relays 73 along the rear fender 71, the conductors 72 connected to the relays are different in length, so the wiring work for laying the conductors 72 beforehand in the relay box 70 is not rendered uniform and is complicated.